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Hello, the Church of St Mary's Putney stands on the South Bank of the Thames about six miles

upriver from central London. On the north wall of its name, a slate plaque commemorates a

seismic event which took place here during the English Civil War, which went on to influence

politics here and abroad for centuries. The possibility of modern democracy could be said

to have emerged here. On October 28, 1647, Oliver Cromwell and other members of the new

Model Army Met in St Mary's Church, as he turned out, to discuss a new constitution for England.

Charles I had been defeated and imprisoned, and it seemed a new future beckon.

There were still religious and political differences to be overcome, and over many days,

discussions on many days of discussions that participants tried to resolve them.

But within a month, the king had escaped, and the talks ended without agreement. Nevertheless,

the Putney Debates are commonly regarded as a major advanced in our idea of what democracy is

and how it can be realised. With me to discuss, the Putney Debates are,

just in champion, Professor of the History of Early Modern Ideas at Royal Holloway University of London,

Anne Hughes, Professor of Early Modern History at Keel University, and Kate Peters,

fellow in history at Murray Edwards College, Cambridge. Just in champion,

the Putney Debates took place five years after the beginning of the English Civil War. Would you

give us a summary of what that war was about? Potted history, and it all ordered,

King versus Parliament. By 1640, Charles I had really overextended his demands for

prerogative, and had alienated most of the local elites who were represented in Parliament.

So we had, in 1640, the need for a king to call Parliament to gain money to fight the Scots.

...